SIX
"Do you remember what to do?" Mr. Kaplan asks Lizzie as they get Ray settled into their bed.
Lizzie nods her head. "Yes." Mr. Kaplan keeps staring at her. "Yes, I remember. And if he starts having a discharge call you immediately."
Kate nods her head. "Yes. Very well, then. I shall be off. I will call in a few days to see how he's doing." She turns to Ray and drops a kiss onto his head. "Don't give her too much trouble."
"Me?" Ray asks. "Trouble?" he snorts at the thought.
"Just remember that I've been around when you've been in this position. You don't like to be in one place for too long."
"And immobile. But that was before I had these two beauties," he tells Kate pointing to where Lizzie sat on the floor with Nora, who was now on all fours rocking back and forth. Ray watches in amusement as Nora tries to move forward but falls onto her belly. She grunts her disapproval and gets back up onto her hands and knees. "If at first Nora girl," he says from the bed, "try, try again."
Lizzie looks at him, frowning. "I don't want her to start crawling. She's getting so big already. Just yesterday we brought her home from the hospital. And now she's trying to crawl? No, go back to being my baby girl," she tells Nora scooping her up from the floor and making her giggle as Lizzie smothers her face with kisses.
"Word of advice Lizzie dear," Kate says stopping at the door to their room. Lizzie looks up after putting Nora back onto the floor in front of her. "She will always be your baby girl. No matter how old she gets." With that statement she turns and walks out of the room.
"Am I taking that as she knows from personal experience?" she turns to Ray, who in turn shrugs his shoulders. Lizzie lets out a huff at his vague 'answer'. "Still so much secrecy," she mutters.
~*~ TBL ~*~
Lizzie turns around in bed, making sure Ray was really asleep. She runs her hand over his face and giggles silently when he doesn't move. She had forced a pain pill on him after dinner since he was in pain after Nora decided the only place she wanted to nap was on her Papa. Even with a blanket underneath her, she was still pulling on his stitches. Not enough to rip them, but enough to cause him discomfort.
She sneaks out of bed and past Nora's pack 'n' play where their daughter was sleeping peacefully, her elephant clutched tightly in her hands. She leaves the room and travels down the stairs. She sees Dembe sitting at the island a cup in his hand looking over a file in front of him.
"Is he asleep?" he asks.
"Yup. Those pain meds really work. Did Glen come through?" she asks.
"Oh, yes. It took a little persuasion on my part. He didn't even try to pull anything like he usually does with Raymond." He slides the file across the counter to Lizzie. She takes a look through the papers and gasps.
"Are you freaking kidding me?" she asks looking up at Dembe. "Is that...?"
"Yes, it is."
"Don't know where she is my ass," she remarks. "She is unbelievable. So what do we do now?"
Dembe shrugs his shoulders. "I don't know. What do you want to do? I'm taking all my cues from you. Should we go and talk to her?"
"Go and talk to who?" the two freeze in their spots. Lizzie looks up while Dembe turns around to see Ray standing in the doorway of the kitchen. "Well? Who do you want to go talk to?" Lizzie and Dembe exchange a look, neither really know what to say.
"I thought you were sleeping," Lizzie finally gets out.
"Well, I wasn't. I'm someone who knows how to hide not taking pain medication. Is this why you practically forced it down my throat earlier? You wanted to go and talk to someone?" Lizzie drops his gaze and bites her lip, not knowing how to respond to him. Ray crosses the room and reaches for the file. Dembe slaps his hand over it and looks up at his friend, his brother.
"Before you look, just know we did it for you," he says in a calm manner. Ray gives a single nod before Dembe moves his hand. Ray flips through the file and then freezes looking down at the picture before him.
"No, absolutely not," he replies in a firm tone.
"Absolutely not? What?" Lizzie questions.
"You are not bringing her into this. End of discussion." He turns to Dembe. "We are leaving."
"Leaving? Where the hell do you think you're going?" Lizzie asks following him as he leaves the kitchen. She stands at the bottom of the stairs and watches him stop half way up to catch his breath. "You are not going anywhere."
"Don't," he breathes out. It was supposed to sound menacing, but it came out weak since he was still trying to catch his breath.
"Don't what? Don't care for you? Don't love you?" she shouts at him following him up the stairs and into their room. "Too damn bad. You aren't going anywhere Ray. You could barely walk up those stairs."
"I don't want her in this life Elizabeth. I don't want her to find out what kind of man her father turned out to be."
"Oh, I think that ship has sailed there buddy," she quips. "According to Naomi, Carla or whatever the hell she calls herself now, as soon as she got old enough she took off. And I'm sure your ex-wife didn't even try to stop her. I wasn't going to contact her unless I absolutely had to. And for as long as I've known you, you wanted to know what happened to your daughter. Well, you have everything at your fingertips."
"You are going to wake Nora," he says as he pulls a white shirt out of the closet. He grunts as he pulls it on.
"You are a fool," she sneers at him. She turns as Nora starts fussing. Lizzie turns on her heel and scoops Nora up and walks out of the room and towards hers. She sits down in the rocking chair, holding her close. Nora slows her fussing and falls back asleep. Lizzie lays her down into the crib and makes sure the monitor is on before leaving the room. She makes no notice of Ray as she heads down the stairs. "Talk some sense into him," she hisses to Dembe as she walks into the kitchen.
"There is no talking sense into him," he replies. "You should know that by now."
They both turn as there is a thud on the stairs. Lizzie goes to the stairs to see Ray gripping the bannister. His pants were buttoned, but his shirt and tie were askew as was his vest. He makes it down the stairs, brushing past Lizzie and towards the front door. "Dembe!" he hollers.
"Don't do this Ray," she pleads.
He ignores her. "Dembe!"
"Forget it Raymond. I'm not helping you. Now get back upstairs and back into bed," Dembe tells him. Ray looks between the two.
"Ray, I wasn't trying to bring her into this. You were in the hospital Ray. You almost died. They had a blood shortage. They all donated. I couldn't because of Nora. But they were more interested in Ressler because you guys had the same blood type. Jennifer has the same blood type as you."
"If I didn't think it was a good idea, I wouldn't have helped her Raymond. But think about it. What was she supposed to do?"
Ray looks between the two and then turns to the door. He pulls it open to see Ressler walking up the walkway. "Raymond Todd Reddington!" Lizzie yells.
Ray stops and straightens his back. "Did you just…?" Ressler's eyes go wide as he stops where he was, watching the scene play out in front of him.
"Your damn right I did. You walk out that door and that's it! Don't bother coming back." He turns to look at her. "I did what I did because I was trying to save your life. Saving the life of my fiancé. Saving the father of my daughter." Tears spring into her eyes and start falling down her cheeks. "So get off your high horse Raymond Reddington!" Lizzie then turns on her heels and walks up the stairs as Ray turns and slowly makes his way outside. He turns to look at Dembe, who shakes his head before turning and walking back into the kitchen. Ray takes a deep breath as a sharp stabbing pain shoots through his chest.
Ressler watches as the three go their separate ways. He stands in the doorway peering in. "Hello?" he asks into the house.
"Hey," Lizzie says walking down the stairs holding Nora a blanket wrapped around her. "Follow me." She leads Ressler into the living room, taking a seat on the couch. "What's up?"
"Cooper kind of ordered me to make sure Reddington was settled in and to see how he was doing. Maybe see if we can get a timeline to see when he's going to be back?" he questions slowly.
"I don't know. At the rate he's going right now he will be back in the hospital. Kate will kill me," she mutters.
"Is she okay?" Ressler runs his hand over Nora's back.
"Yeah, we woke her up yelling. We haven't really had a fight like this since before we got together. He found out that we have been looking for Jennifer. He freaked. Told us he didn't want her to be part of this life. And so on."
They watch as Dembe walk out the front door. He comes back in a few minutes later half carrying Ray. Lizzie and Ressler jump up from the couch. Ressler going over to help Dembe try to bring Ray up the stairs.
"Oh no, you are not bringing him in my room. Let him bleed all over the couch," she says seeing the dark red stains on his shirt.
"Lizzie," Ray moans as Dembe and Ressler lay him on the couch.
"Don't you 'Lizzie' me!" she remarks before walking out of the room. She goes into the kitchen and puts Nora in her high chair, placing a few puffs onto her tray. Ressler comes into the room a few minutes later.
"He is asking for you," he tells her. She turns in the chair while looking up from Nora with a frown.
"Well, at the moment I don't want to talk to him." Ressler sighs before walking over and grabbing a cup out of the cabinet and pouring himself a drink from the sink. "You know, I sort of agree with one part, but at the same time, I don't." Lizzie stares at him. "I'm just saying that I understand why he wouldn't want his daughter involved in this life. But at the same time, she sort of already is involved. She's living under a fake name. With her mother, who also has a fake name. A fake name that her ex-husband gave her. So, I'm on the fence with this. But what I will tell you is that he shouldn't gave gotten mad at you for it. You were trying to get him help. He was dying."
"I know that! And you know that, but obviously he doesn't care. Fine, whatever let him bleed to death on the couch. I don't care," she whispers. She slips the ring off her finger and places it on the counter before grabbing Nora and walking out of the kitchen.